First of all, my apologies for posting the results so late, but the Raimondas Rumasa affair and some othr causes provoked a delay in the publication. Actually the doping case regarding Lampre's Rumsas is far from over. The Lithuanian, already suspended by his team, is facing a possible disqualification and the loss of the third place overall he got on the road. But such a decision could take a long time, and as I guess players can't wait for that long. I dexcided that calculate the final scores, and keeping Rumsas as third-placed rider. Should the Baltic rider be stripped of his placing, things would change, and so would scores and standings. But in the meantime, here are the VIRTUAL TEAM FINAL RESULTS

As fully predictable, Mike Barker easily kept his lead on Geoff Pendry during the final stage, and claimed the Overall Title. The Englishman from ... Boston (Lincolnshire) was the third European winner out of three Fabio's Fantasy Games in the 2002 season.

Kudos to final runner-up Geoff Pendry too. The American contender managed to get a second placing even without any Bonus Points. But his riders were very good ones. As for the remaining podium spot, the tight battle was suprisingly won by Denmark's Keld Haagensen, who moved up 2 places in the very final part of the game. It's the second consecutive podium placing (after the #2 spot at the Giro) for the "BARAKA" Virtual Team, that almost equalled "Giorgino" of fellow countryman Davaid Holm (Fantasy Spring winner, and Fantasy Giro "bronze medallist"). Danes are definitely great Fantasy Games specialists.

Australia's Tim Kenington took fourth, while American Brannon Amtower dropped to (a very excellent anyway) fifth place overall. As for the battle to get into the final TOP 10, we had another big surprise, as Germany's Jens Pankuweit edged out all three main contenders for he tenth spot: Francesco Grandi (who finished eleventh), Phil Miano (that was 13th in the end), and "Site_Goddess" Janna Trevisanut (who dropped to 14th place).

Two more great battles featured the Fantasy Tour: the one for becoming the "Best Hiberian player" ended up with Basque Josu "outsprinting" Portugal's Pedro Martins by no more than 1 point (929-928), while the definitive "Red Lantern" was American Chris Kumnick, who finished 20 points behind Britain's Reg Tubby.

PS - A little score correction: 4 Teams (Cheerup's Chicks, Velowhiz, Triumph and Team Klein) had their score modified as they received 10 further points - from AG2R's Christophe Edelaine - not previously awarded. My apologies to them, but seems all scores are fully correct now.

More Comments, details and statistics concerning the game to come soon in a brand new article. So stay tuned to the Daily Peloton to know everything about the 2nd Fabio's Fantasy Tour ("FantaSTour 2002"). See you later ...